Kanye West - God, I love Kanye West. I think Kanye's and my highpoint together was when I attacked him in Paris this summer demanding an autograph and he drew me a picture of a teddy bear. Love him!
But such sensitivity comes with a price and, in the hip hop world, that price will always be accusastions of (shudder!) gayness. Such brickbats have stepped up in recent days ever since Kanye made the frankly earth-shattering announcement that the hip hop world can be a little, well, nasty to ho-mo-sex-u-als.
And although Kanye defiantly stayed true to his beliefs when he was accused of being unpatriotic when he claimed, in the wake of Hurricaine Katrina, that "President Bush doesn't care about black people", he has felt the need to deal with these pesky gay insults. I mean, being thought un-American is one thing but gay? Ewww!
Bravely and, one imagines, necessarily eschewing the "some of my best friends are gay" defense, Kanye instead proved his maverick credentials this week by opting for a decidedly novel form of defense: insisting he is, actually, a big ol' homophobe.
"I'm still homophobic to a certain extent," he reassures his fans. "You know, I wouldn't go to a gay parade and feel comfortable. I wouldn't ever go to a gay club or something and just be chillin' and grab a drink."
Well, not without keeping his back tightly against a wall, mind.
Despite this still reassuring quibble, Kanye, with tears (possibly) in his eyes, reveals in an interview in the NME that he has met "so many different gay people" working in the entertainment business and that some of them, amazingly enough, are "actually nice people."
"Where I came from, Chicago, being black and being a hip-hop artist, we used to really disrespect gay people. And the thing is, we can't get close to them with a 10-foot pole. And I realised, 'Wow, how ignorant has this been?'"
We're treating that question rhetorically, Kanye. But one thing: why are all homophobes so sure of their irresistible appeal to the gays out there? Why are they so certain that if they put just one big toe in a gay club they won't be able to walk for a week? Funny how the words "wishful" and "thinking" seemed to float on the breeze there, ain't it?
